Florida investigators probe Learjet crash that killed nine, including 20‑year‑old pilot

All nine people aboard a Learjet 60 business jet were killed Sunday, Nov. 1, when the plane plunged into a roadway in Greenacres, Florida, in Palm Beach County, and exploded, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. The jet had left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. It crashed at about 12:50 p.m. ET near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, according to the FAA and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, as reported by NBC News and CNN.

Duffy called the crash a "horrific tragedy." Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters at the scene, "It was a cataclysmic plane crash." He added, "It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road," according to CNBC. DeSantis said officials had no reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured, though debris spread over a "pretty significant distance," according to Fox News and the New York Post.

The jet came down at the entrance to a mobile home community. County Commissioner Joel Flores said about 600 residents were being moved to two county shelters because the site is now an active investigation, according to Fox News. Officials said Military Trail would stay closed until further notice.

Who was aboard and what investigators said Monday

The co-pilot was identified by her family Monday as Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, of Palm Beach County, who earned her private pilot's license at 17 while still in high school. Her mother and stepfather confirmed her identity to the New York Post, her mother spoke to The New York Times, and her sister spoke to NBC News. Her mother told the Times she worked for Upper Jets, a Fort Lauderdale charter company that owned the jet, according to The Guardian.

On Monday, a statement from the families of the seven passengers identified them as technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, their children, 4-year-old Emma and 2-year-old Charlie, and Anita Maria Cetina, who helped care for the children, according to Breitbart, which carried the Associated Press report. Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were also killed. "Our hearts are also with the families of the pilots, who are grieving alongside us," the families said. The New York Post identified the captain as Jeff Gregory, 55; officials had not publicly identified him in the sources. Earlier, Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit had reported the names citing TMZ. Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo said the medical examiner's office was handling identification, according to The Epoch Times, which also reported one injury on the ground: a man in a vehicle leaving the area suffered a leg injury.

NTSB member Tom Chapman said, "We do have some evidence that there was some breakup of the aircraft before impact," and that investigators were still seeking to determine that, according to NBC News and HuffPost. The NTSB said weather will be a major focus, and the cause remains under investigation. "We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site," Chapman said, according to The Epoch Times. Chapman said investigators still have to determine the weather conditions at 35,000 feet, and the board will also examine the crew's actions and look for mechanical problems. The Epoch Times, carrying the AP report, said AccuWeather put the tops of some storm clouds at 45,000 feet. Retired airline pilot John Cox said the conditions the pilot described were unusual for that altitude. "Those are all really big red flags to me," he said.

On Tuesday, former Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon wrote on X that he had flown on the same jet last month with the same two pilots. "They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people," he wrote, according to the New York Post.

What the radio calls and flight data show

The plane was cruising east at about 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and asked to climb another 2,000 feet, according to the Associated Press account carried by CNBC. "We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence," the pilot told controllers, according to recordings captured by LiveATC.net. Moments later the jet entered a steep dive. "We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute," the pilot radioed, adding, "We're going to crash into the ground."

The FAA said the plane dropped from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in a little over a minute, roughly 350 feet per second, according to ABC News. CNN reported that the plane passed through a strong storm cell a few minutes before it began descending, and that it is unclear whether the storm played a role. Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo told the AP that icing and turbulence could have contributed and may have caused a stall, but that investigators won't rule anything out yet, according to CNBC.

The jet, tail number N722BD, is registered to LR60271 LLC in Wilmington, Delaware, and is listed online as available for charter, according to CNN and the New York Post. CNN, citing NTSB records, said it is the second-deadliest U.S. plane crash this year. The NTSB is leading the investigation.

How outlets covered it

The basic facts were consistent across outlets, much of it drawn from the same Associated Press report. Differences came in emphasis and in a few details.

Right-leaning outlets more often put President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in the headline. Fox News and The Daily Wire both did, as did RUSH's own event title. Distances given ranged from about 8 to 9 miles; the BBC, a left-leaning outlet, also cited the distance to Mar-a-Lago in its first paragraphs. CNN, the New York Post and ZeroHedge noted that Trump had departed the nearby West Palm Beach airport on Air Force One a little more than an hour before the crash. No outlet or official in the sources has suggested any connection between the crash and Trump.

The New York Post, The Daily Wire, The Post Millennial and The Gateway Pundit gave the most space to the cockpit audio, including a crew member's final words, which the Post reported as "Holy f–k we're out of time." The AP version carried by HuffPost instead quoted the pilot saying "We're going to die," citing The New York Times. Left-leaning outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian and CBS News mostly stuck to official statements.

Early reports differed on whether homes were hit. The New York Post initially reported the jet was "apparently demolishing at least one trailer," and The Daily Beast said it crashed into a mobile home park, while the AP reported that the fireball appeared to just miss homes and The Guardian said it was unclear whether any homes were damaged. Officials later described the site as the entrance to the community and reported no injuries on the ground.

The AP report carried by CNBC paired the pilot's icing and turbulence reports with an aviation expert's view that they could have contributed. The Daily Wire, which also reported the icing, instead quoted an unnamed local pilot who suggested a malfunction or a loss of cabin pressure.

On social media

On X, crash footage spread widely. A post by @BasilTheGreat with the dashcam video drew more than 6,800 likes and about 467,000 views. Some accounts went further and suggested the crash was not an accident. Kurt Wuckert Jr. (@kurtwuckertjr), who said he lives near the site, wrote that the video "certainly doesn’t look accidental," in a post viewed about 174,000 times. Another account, @ExpoEthan, claimed that "Anti-Air Defense at Mar-a-Lago could have inadvertently disabled the learjet," in a post viewed about 130,000 times, pointing to where the jet began its dive as evidence. A smaller set of posts from Trump critics claimed, citing no evidence, that the crash was a staged false flag, drawing a few thousand views.

None of the outlets in RUSH's sources reported any air-defense involvement, foul play or attack. The recorded radio calls describe icing, turbulence and an emergency descent, and the FAA and NTSB had not named a cause as of Sunday night.

On Bluesky, the most-shared posts were footage, reactions and warnings not to listen to the cockpit audio, such as one from @navithefairy.bsky.social. One widely shared post from @lemonodor.bsky.social linked a preliminary flight-data analysis and noted the crew "did report light icing before the incident." A few posts mentioned claims of an attack on Mar-a-Lago, but they drew little engagement.